Most of us have owned a version of our unused treadmill. It might be a guitar gathering dust, a DSLR locked away in a cupboard, or a course we started with excitement and quietly abandoned. We didn’t lack motivation—we lacked an understanding of how passion actually works. Most of us don’t fail because we lack passion. We fail because we expect passion to appear before effort, struggle, and competence. In reality, passion is
This series is my attempt to document the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self-improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error, false starts, and long stretches of inconsistency. I don’t aim for perfection. I go off track
Why does getting started feel so hard, but continuing later feels almost effortless? Why does discipline feel painful while habits feel natural? Understanding this difference changed how I approach learning, health, and personal growth. This series is my attempt to document the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends,
Early in my career, I believed the right book could fix almost anything. Experience taught me otherwise. This series is my attempt to document ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self-improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error,
Eldorado refers to a mystical city of gold in South America, sought by 16th century Spanish explorers. The term originates from the Spanish phrase el dorado, meaning the gilded one. Eldorado is a metaphor for any place that promises wealth or great opportunity. This is something about writer Sujatha I liked a lot. I started reading Sujatha’s short stories, novellas, novels from my high school days. He introduced scientific and
Writer himself is on a journey from Bangalore to Chennai in Brindavan express. Travel in first class. In Sujatha’s style of description of the environment we get to visualize the Bangalore city railway station. College age students wearing round spectacles with Hadley Chase novels in their hand surveying where young girls are seated. Bored passengers waking up and down the platform. Train needs to cross Cantonment before the coffee/tea/snacks/fast food/
Even though evolution was covered in school curriculum, my curiosity awakened when I came across Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Selfish Gene gave me a better understanding of genes and evolution with less scientific terms without dumbing down or simplifying too much. It had the balanced approach of handholding us while forcing us to apply our thinking to get the scientific concepts. Selfish Gene led to running through other books
Every family has someone who will claim times were better under British before independence. They don’t have to be above 60 or 70 years of age. Even few youngsters mention it – they would have borrowed that opinion either from their elders or some ideological propaganda. Of course, now it is fashion to say bad things about Gandhi, and Nehru. Soon, Ambedkar will join the list of Gandhi and
As per Indian subcontinent mythology, there are seven worlds below our feet – அதலம், விதலம், தலம், கபஸ்திமல், மகாதலம், சுதலம், பாதாளம். We get our food and water from there. We can’t see them. Similar to those seven worlds below us, are there worlds within our society we are not aware of? We see different classes of people daily but never stopped to ask how their life would look like. We may
(The untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine by Kavitha Rao – A book Review) Disclosure: This article also published within the organization I work for. Posted here with permission from organization What the surroundings would have looked like for a girl born in 1870s of India? What she could have aspired for? How the society viewed and treated the girls in those times? Most likely she would have